The present invention relates to an audio signal editing apparatus suitable for use as an audio mixing console and the like, a control method for controlling the audio signal editing apparatus, and a computer program for performing the control method.
Today's audio mixing consoles are digitized to perform a variety of functions, and human operators are allowed to make various desired settings of the mixing consoles. Providing, on the mixing console, all of operators and displays necessary for performing these functions would greatly increase the overall area of the mixing console and is therefore impractical. Thus, it has been conventional to provide a multi-function display on the mixing console and visually show a variety of settings by switching the functions of the display. However, with the conventional audio mixing consoles, it is necessary for the human operator to set, via switches or the like, contents of information to be shown on the display, which tends to be very troublesome operation.
Further, on the conventional audio mixing consoles, there are provided a plurality of faders to control or adjust the tone volume and the like of audio signals of a plurality of channels. Increasing the number of such faders may greatly enhance the operability to adjust the tone volume and the like of many channels, but it will also increase the overall size and cost of the mixing console. A variety of audio signals may be input to and processed by the audio mixing console; in many cases, audio signals of a set of channels (normally, two channels), having already been edited as stereophonic audio signals, are also input to and processed by the audio mixing console.
Regarding audio signals of such a set of channels, it is desirable that parameters, such as operating amounts of corresponding faders (hereinafter referred to as “fading amounts”), be related or coupled to each other (i.e., interlocked between the channels). Thus, in the art, there has been known a technique which, when the fading amount or the like of any one of channels constituting a particular channel set has been changed, causes the fading amount or the like of the other channel of the particular channel set to be changed in conformity with the changed fading amount or the like of the one channel. In this case, the faders are in the form of electric faders, whose operating positions are caused to automatically follow specific fading amounts to be set. However, with the known technique, some of the faders do nothing more than following the other faders, which would result in significant wastes of some of the limited number of faders and other operators and circuits associated therewith.